6.27.2013

Minneapolis-based cryptographer, blogger, and security expert Bruce Schneier has joined the board of online civil rights group EFF. Schneier, whose site Schneier on Security is a must-read, says, "EFF is one of the leading organizations fighting the government's
unconstitutional spying, marshaling legal and technological expertise to
battle surveillance in the courtroom and in Congress. I'm excited to work together with the board and the staff as we learn
more about this spying and how we can shut it down."

6.26.2013

Hidden behind weeds on a dangerously busy stretch of off-ramp from Interstate 94 in Minneapolis' Wedge neighborhood, I spotted this piece, a subtle paint-on-newspaper work wheat-pasted to a concrete retaining wall. Given its placement--hidden from speeding cars but close to the stoplights where panhandlers hold their signs--the quiet work feels like a gift, overlooked by all but the most observant or the very lucky.

...Politicians claim that the Terror State is necessary to defend
democratic institutions from the threat of terrorism. But there is a
deep irony to this rhetoric. Terrorism does not pose, has never posed
and never will pose an existential threat to the United States.
Terrorists will never have the capacity to “take away our freedom.”
Terrorist outfits have no armies with which to invade, and no means to
impose martial law. They do not have their hands on supra-national power
levers like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They
cannot force nations into brutal austerity programs and other forms of
economic subjugation. But while terrorism cannot pose an existential
threat to the United States, the institutions of a Terror State
absolutely can. Indeed, their continued expansion poses a serious threat
to principles of democracy and equality...

• Istanbul-based artist Erdem Gündüz's protest against the Turkish government's crackdown on dissenters last week--in which he stood stock still, intent on doing so for a full month--has drawn the attention of police and a spate of silent protests across the country in solidarity.

• Ai Weiwei's first rock album,The Divine Comedy, is now available on iTunes, or you can listen to it at Soundcloud or on his website.

6.24.2013

Returning to Lahore from the US, artist Mahwish Chishty decided upon a new subject matter for her paintings: US surveillance drones that have been wreaking havoc along the Pakistani border. Leveraging the local tradition of truck painting, she says, "I wanted people to think maybe what would happen if these drones were
friendlier looking, instead of such hard-edged, metallic war machines."

Bridle's work these days focuses on "the New Aesthetic," a research project in which he collects " material which points towards new ways of seeing the world,
an echo of the society, technology, politics and people that co-produce
them."

James Bridle, Dronestagram ("May
29 2013 - A strike on a mud-built house in Miranshah or the nearby
village of Chashma, at 3am, killing 4-7 people. According to local
resident Bashir Dawar, “The bodies were badly damaged and beyond
recognition.”